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Research and Recreation Strategies from the Arctic

What's Working From Home: Alumni Edition

By UNC Asheville

April 2^nd, 2020

Above: Robert David '13 is lifted by a weather balloon at the research station in Ny Ålesund, Norway.

It’s the perfect sunset: just above the snowy mountains, reflected in the freezing waters of the Kongsfjorden, the sun is dipping below the horizon, turning the sky and the snow a golden orange before night falls.

But it’s noon.

Research and Recreation Strategies from the Arctic

It’s September in the small city of Ny Ålesund, Norway, the northernmost city in the world, and UNC Asheville alumnus Robert David ‘13 is preparing to spend the next two (dark) months on a research campaign to learn more about cloud properties and aerosols. Just 850 miles south of the North Pole, David and the research team faced freezing cold temperatures, harsh winds, and endless hours of night to collect their data.

With many professionals now engaged in working from home to limit the spread of COVID-19, David’s experience in the Arctic illustrates an extreme example of “remote working.”

“The darkness was the most challenging aspect of daily life,” said David, who majored in atmospheric sciences at UNC Asheville, and went on to attain a Master of Science at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, and his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. “The sun set behind the mountains at the beginning of October. There was still light in the sky until early-November when the sun was so far below the horizon, that the stars and Northern lights were visible at noon. Although the darkness did not affect our work much, it influenced our sleep.”

Researchers Guangyu Li , Robert David '13, Julie Pasquier, Jan Henneberger and Jörg Wieder.

"The sun set behind the mountains at the beginning of October."

David and his fellow researchers used a giant weather balloon to gather data about clouds and aerosols.

With limited access to the remote city, food options were limited, as well.

“I do not think I have ever eaten so many potatoes in my life and the lack of fresh food between the resupply ships made the food seem more monotonous,” David said, although he noted that the cooks did their best with what they had.

Like many current at-home workers, David and his team relied on technology to communicate with those beyond their confines—although the lack of phones and WIFI meant they depended on an Ethernet cable and Skype to make contact with the outside world.

But the difficult conditions were necessary to understand the effect of aerosols—small particles in the air that can be the result of human activity like power production, or natural occurrences like wildfires or volcanos—on clouds and cloud properties. Cloud properties can determine how much precipitation reaches the ground, and how much radiation reaches and leaves the Earth’s surface. Because the Arctic is such a pristine environment, David and other scientists are able to investigate how clouds behave with very few aerosols.

“The cloud’s radiative properties influence the overall radiation budget of Earth and ultimately the climate,” David explained. “As the Arctic is warming significantly faster than the rest of the Earth, it is important to understand how susceptible these clouds are to climate change and what the earth’s warming will mean for the radiative properties of these clouds.”

David and his colleagues gathered this data by measuring the number and size of cloud droplets and ice crystals in clouds using a giant tethered balloon.

“This meant that we were flying our balloon, which was 7 meters in diameter, in some of the harshest conditions we could get,” David explained. “During sampling, I spent most of the time operating a winch to maneuver the balloon up and down. The balloon has so much lifting power when it is windy that the winch relies on a Chevy V8 engine to move it up and down.”

Life in the Arctic wasn’t all work, though. Even in the extreme cold and long night, David and the other researchers in Ny Ålesund found ways to unwind after work and enjoy themselves.

“There was bandi, which is floor hockey but with a round ball instead of a puck on Monday and Wednesday night,” David said. “We also utilized the sauna to warm up and relax after spending the days in the cold. The outdoor hot tub was also a nice touch and we saw our best display of northern lights while sitting in it. Lastly, there is the Saturday night bar. The bar has the cheapest drinks in all of Norway and it was always nice to have the entire research ‘town’ come out and party.”

David’s adventures in the Arctic and around the world continue—an adventure that started back on UNC Asheville’s campus.

“The adventures you can have doing research in atmospheric sciences can be extremely rewarding. In addition to spending time in the Arctic, I have also been to several mountain top research stations around the world,” David said.

“I highly recommend that students consider pursuing a career in the atmospheric sciences and getting involved in undergraduate research. I especially enjoyed the research opportunities that the department at UNCA offered. They included maintaining and collecting data from rain gauges all over Great Smokey Mountain National Park and launching weather balloons during snowstorms to improve the snowfall forecasts in real time. Looking back on it, I am extremely grateful for the education and research opportunities that the Atmospheric Sciences department provided me during my studies.”

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